The Islanders were closing in on a couple of minor deals last night, but nothing appeared hot on the Trevor Linden and Rich Pilon fronts.

Of course, that could change today before the 3 p.m. trading deadline, but it appears that Linden is a better than 50-50 choice to stay around as the offers coming in have been surprisingly low.

GM Mike Milbury is feverishly shopping Pilon, who has $4 million and two years left on his con-tract. But his back spasms that has kept him out of the last three games has hurt his trade value, and Milbury won’t give him up for a draft pick. The injury to on-the-block Ulf Samuelsson, who will miss the next two-to-three weeks, figured to up Pilon’s demand, but his back spasms have offset that. Some in the organization believe Pilon may be jaking it to ensure he remains on Long Island.

Meanwhile, two of the following four – Bryan Smolinski, Sergei Nemchinov, Craig Janney and Joe Sacco – could go today. The problem is, only Smolinski has drawn mild interest.

Yesterday, Milbury called Ziggy Palffy’s agent, Paul Kraus, to inform him he won’t be traded and the team is building around Palffy, defenseman Kenny Jonsson and goalie Felix Potvin, the latter of whom has allowed Milbury to entertain offers for former first-round pick Roberto Luongo.

In the wake of dumping first-line center Robert Reichel, Tommy Salo and Ted Donato, Kraus told The Post Sunday he hoped Palffy is dealt before the deadline. However, with Palffy ready to close on a house in Long Island in two days, the elite right wing told his agent yesterday he’d rather survive the deadline.

Meanwhile, Salo, in Edmonton, said about the ongoing fire sale: “I feel sorry for the people of Long Island the way it’s been handled there. Two or three years ago, we started to get a good team. We seemed to be going in the right direction. Now it’s going the other way.”